Other Books

September 29, 2006

GRRM on YouTube

A short, three minute interview with George regarding his newly-published children’s book, The Ice Dragon, can be found on YouTube. Examples of the art by Yvonne Gilbert can be seen while GRRM discusses the genesis of the story and its meaning.

One of the first reviews of the book can be found at BookGasm, which concludes that George could have a promising career in children’s literature.

According to Amazon.co.uk, they already have Dreamsongs - GRRM: A RRetrospective in stock. This is a great collection of many of GRRM’s best short stories. You can view a list of what it contains at Subterranean Press’s page about the limited edition of this book that they published some years ago.

Pat, of Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, has now announced a contest to win one of two copies of George R.R. Martin’s forthcoming illustrated, Young Adult version of The Ice Dragon. This is a classic, award-winning novella by GRRM that will make a lovely gift to a child or a fan of his work (or that of Yvonne Gilbert, who provides the lovely illustrations).

GRRM’s official site has an updated “Cover Art” section featuring a new foreign edition cover for A Storm of Swords, as well as a sample from the new Wild Cards novel, Inside Straight, in the brand new “Wild Cards Sample” section.

Locus, the premiere trade magazine of the SF/F publishing industry, runs a yearly poll which culminates in the Locus Awards (given out the same weekend as the Nebulas). Lately, the poll has been open to anyone who’ll take the time to go through and vote on it. If you’re interested in voting in such categories as Best SF Novel, Best Fantasy Novel, Best Young Adult Novel, Best Artist, and more, go here. The deadline is this Saturday.

From John Scalzi (who’s one of GRRM’s competitors in the Best Novel Category at the Hugos for his novel, Old Man’s War), we learn that those who pre-order his forthcoming book about writing from Subterranean Press and mention him and his blog, “Whatever”, in the comment field for the order will get 30% off their entire order (for most items; A Storm of Swords, for example, isn’t part of this special deal). Which means you could also buy the limited/lettered editions of Fevre Dream or GRRM: A Rretrospective all at 30% off. It’s a great opportunity, which comes to a close after tomorrow, so order quickly!

GRRM’s official site has been updated with a news entry announcing the previously-reported September 2006 publication of GRRM’s novella The Ice Dragon, in a slightly-redacted form, from Tor’s Young Adult imprint. He’s given some concrete details that help to explain some of the oddities mentioned earlier, including the fact that it will be "lavishly illustrated" by Yvonne Gilbert. There is also a small image from the book on the page.

GRRM has also updated his Not a Blog with a post discussing the Hugo Award final ballot.

Thanks to some sleuthing, we have some tenative information concerning a new novel by GRRM to be released in October 2006. The Ice Dragon looks to be published by Starscape (Tor’s Young Adult imprint), although there’s reason to believe that it may in fact be published by the Tor Teen imprint. The original is a beautifully-written short story, but it’s notable that Amazon.com lists it at 112 pages, which suggests that it will be (or has been) significantly expanded. [Another possibility which has just been pointed out is that it’s a short story collection, although at 112 pages it’s quite a short collection.]

More information will be posted as we get it, but it does put us in mind of George’s recent remark about “all sorts of interesting new books” being discussed and/or planned following his trip to New York City.

Via the SFWA, we learn that iBooks has filed for bankruptcy. The founder and publisher, Byron Preiss, passed away in a car accident last year, and it seems the company was unable to recover from his loss. What this means for future Wild Cards novels is, at present, an open question.

Subterranean Press, the publishers of the limited edition "A Song of Ice and Fire" and other works, has provided some new information regarding the status of A Storm of Swords and other GRRM-related projects. Besides learning that the Charles Vess-illustrated A Storm of Swords is nearly ready for release, it’s noted that Tom Canty is currently working on A Feast for Crows and Fevre Dream is beginning to roll along.

Fictionwise.com, one of the leading e-book sites, has recently added several of GRRM’s stories to its already-sizable collection (which includes a number of GRRM’s novels, including parts of the Wild Cards series). Particularly notable additions are “A Song for Lya”, “Portraits of His Children”, and “The Glass Flower”. The full list of the e-books available for purchase can be found here.

GRRM’s official site has been updated with a news item concerning the 17th Wild Cards novel, Death Draws Five, written by John J. Miller. The book has been scheduled for a January release in hardcover. More information regarding the novel can be found on the news page, as well as in this entry, which includes information concerning how to buy older volumes of the books straight from John. Also updated has been the "From My Readers" section, with a new entry in ASoIaF-inspired baby names.

For those who are really big fans of the series, it should be noted that John has been posting at the ASoIaF board, in the Other Authors forum, where he’s happy to answer questions.